Year Plans 2025: What I've Missed

Boy, this has been… a year. Please ignore my twitchy eye. Or the emotional exhaustion. Let’s just… talk about video games today, alright?

For the newcomers: I started setting up Year Plans in 2023, as a way to force myself to check out games selected somewhat at random through my collection. The idea was that if I only ever chose on my own what I wanted to play, there are games I own that I’d never touch! So why not leave it to luck? Of course, as I realized at the end of that year, I can always misjudge and overshoot. After all, I take direct inspiration from HowLongToBeat lengths to make these random picks, and I can never know how long a game will truly take me, versus how long that website says it takes on average. That said, I’m a very thorough player and I often go beyond just finishing a game's main story, so it often takes me longer than those indicated lengths to finish games.

Every year so far, I ended up with plenty of games I was hoping to cover in those 12 months, that I ultimately ran out of time for. 14 in 2023, and 17 in 2024. This year, however, I am proud to announce that I don’t have a lot of leftovers… only 8. I call that a win! But still, I wanted to operate the same way as before, by playing just an hour of each game and report on it for the last article of the year. Hell, there were so few this time around, I juggled with the idea of playing two hours of each instead! But nah. One hour will be enough. I’ll just write more for each.

The estimated duration of the eight games today ranges between 11 and 67 hours (…don’t start), and would have taken me an extra 250 hours to get done. I don’t think I would have had enough time.

Well then! With so few, I guess I won’t split these into categories!

Team Sonic Racing

Out of my way, Amy! I'm gonna steal the third place from
you!

There are many Sonic racing games out there, though for a while they existed under the “Sonic & All-Stars” umbrella that allowed characters from other properties to join the roster. This doesn’t quite work for Team Sonic Racing's concept, where characters play in their classic teams (with a few changes) and have to rely on each other to win each race. Each team has a Speed character (Sonic, Amy, Shadow, etc.), with a race car that has faster speed than average; a Technical character (Tails, Omochao, Rouge, etc.) with better handling and the ability to pick up rings more easily; and a Power character (Knuckles, Big, E-123 Omega, etc.) that is slower, but unaffected by most road hazards.

Five teams, 15 characters total, and the entire game is built around teamwork. The car of your teammate closest to first place leaves a trail behind, and the other two can drive along that trail to gain a speed boost. It feels a little like teamwork rubberbanding. Racers can pick up Wisps as power-ups – many of which feels directly inspired by similar items in Mario Kart.

One hour wasn’t enough to go too far into it, so I haven’t seen yet whether having to rely on your two CPU allies to get ahead leads to issues down the line (you never know how well the AI will play, after all), so… guess I’ll see when I get around to it.

Super Mario Odyssey (Part 3)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Time to end this!

Land on the Moon

... ...I'm speechless. It's beautiful.

Mario and Cappy, with the Odyssey at full power, depart for the moon, with Cappy dressing Mario up in a white tux. The final showdown at Honeylune Ridge, Moon Kingdom. For a land up there, it’s got a lot of activity. Including a giant chapel in the distance. Low gravity, allowing Mario to make huge jumps around. The planet, giant and visible from this spot, truly magnificent. Makes one feel minuscule in the universe.

If you fall in the lava, might as well kiss that health
goodbye, you won't jump high enough to return to safe land.

There’s plenty of Power Moons to be found here as well, but it’s not exactly the focus now, is it? We have a nonconsensual wedding to crash. To get to the chapel, Mario passes by an underground cave… actually a long stretch of platforming over lava, with enemies to take over. That section felt more like a “Bowser’s Castle” area than Bowser’s actual castle! And it’s a tough part, too. I remember a portion where I had to capture a Chargin’ Chuck and run through on a tight stretch of platform. The underground ends with a rematch against Madame Broode.

Looks warm and welcoming. And yet, ominous.

Kind of incredible that for the wedding, Bowser even
bothered to get his messy red hair combed.

This leads us to the plateau, and into the Chapel where we find Bowser and Peach alongside a whole crowd of people seemingly kidnapped to attend. Even the audience is non-consenting! Bowser, you gotta learn to accept a “No”. What kind of example are you setting for Jr.? No means no! At the sight of his forever enemy, the dragon isn’t happy. A trapdoor opens and the plumber falls to an arena under the chapel. Final boss! This fight is very similar to the one in Cloud Kingdom; same gimmicks, stealing Bowser’s top hat and punching him repeatedly with it to send him flying into electrified barriers. Bowser’s pattern is a lot trickier than before, but aside from that? Yeah, pretty much the same fight. It’s kinda disappointing, really.

Super Mario Odyssey (Part 2)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Gonna run through several kingdoms in one go.

Lands of Themes

Put a coat on that man, he's freezing!

From the Cascade Kingdom, Mario and Cappy travel to the Sand Kingdom, the location of Tostarena, inhabited by Dia de Los Muertos-style skeleton people. And yet, the first thing the heroes do upon landing… is shiver. The desert is overtaken by ice. Well, that’s a new twist on an idea! We’ve seen plenty of video game worlds that were a mix of lava and ice, rarely one where part of the plot involves one taking over the other – and generally, it’d be the opposite, like fire burning a frozen land. Several worlds in Super Mario Odyssey play on the concept of contrast, and as a result many have two coexisting themes, which is more interesting than just having classic video game world themes to walk around in. (Not the first game to do this, but those are rare. The only other example I can think, off the top of my head, is Rayman Origins.)

2D or not 2D, that is the question!

The fancy bunny gal with the explosive temper. (Fun fact: I
added images to this article right on Easter day. So I'm only
a day late with all the bunnies!)

We investigate, going past the  town and into the ruins, where we find one Power Moon; this opens the way towards a floating island, in which we’re introduced to another concept: Collecting five Moon Shards to obtain a full Moon. That, in turn, opens the way to an inverted pyramid, with the Broodals’ ship hovering around its top. The bunnies up there boast that Bowser has stolen this land’s most prized treasure, the Binding Band, to put on Peach’s finger during their nonconsensual wedding. One of them, Hariet, comes down and fights Mario with an arsenal of explosives. Nothing we haven’t seen before. Following that, the inverted pyramid rises in the air, and Mario descends into the new chasm to fight this land’s deity, Knucklotec, protector of the ring and the true reason why the desert has frozen over.

When the occasion arises, Mario doesn't turn down a good ol'
mano a mano combat.

Super Mario Odyssey (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

Covering another Mario title here almost feels like an event. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Mario franchise. I didn’t get my Switch until 2023, so for six years I witnessed, from a distance, the new evolution of Mario’s adventures, now taking on a more semi-open world feel thanks to its latest outing. Of course, as soon as I got the console, Super Mario Odyssey was on the must-buy list alongside other major titles from Nintendo.

This new entry, released on October 27th, 2017, was Mario’s latest proper 3D adventure since the Galaxy duology, so it was interesting to see which direction the franchise would take this time. Well, it didn’t disappoint. There isn’t a ton I can say for an intro, I just want to jump right into it. Jump up, super star!

Land of Hats

There probably wasn't an adventure, we're still in the
Mushroom Kingdom.
(P.S. I am using ZebraGamer's playthrough for the
screenshots. Go check it out!

If there’s an adventure before this one, we don’t get to see it; all we know is that Princess Peach was captured by Bowser. Dude just can’t get the hint that she isn’t into him. This time, he’s wearing proper wedding attire; goes to show how serious he is, even as he battles Mario. A quick boomerang toss of his top hat, and Bowser sends Mario’s cap flying, then tosses his forever enemy overboard. All Princess Peach can do is watch and yell out to her hero, while her crown… jumps on her head? With eyes? A propeller shreds the red cap to bits, but it is picked up by a strange top hat ghost.

Cappy, Mario survived the literal death and rebirth of the
universe. He'll be back on his feet in no time!

When Mario comes to, he is being awoken by the same ghost, and he has landed in a world with very little color. Aside from the giant moon in the background. Do I hear a skeleton sing? The ghost flies off with the piece of cap, but Mario catches up to him. Poor little guy, he looks so sad. We learn that this is the Cap Kingdom, inhabited by his kind, the Bonneters; they just got attacked by Bowser. This little guy, Cappy, is in distress, as his sister was kidnapped by the monster; she's the crown on Peach’s head.

Year Plans 2024: What I've Missed

Last year, I made a list like this, going over all the games I had planned to cover during the year but didn’t; that meant playing roughly an hour of each of them, and collecting my “first impressions” (by default of not having enough time to play through their entirety, like I try to for regular reviews) into a single article.

I thought I had done poorly this year, but no – when compared to 2023, where I had 14 games I hadn’t played through, this time around I have 17, which… yeah, it’s more, but it’s not that much more. It’s unfortunate that I couldn’t hit my goals, but then again – I did overshoot while setting up my Year Plans. I won’t explain my method in depth, but it’s more than just “roll for a random number”. As usual, I’ll be setting this up in time for my retrospective, next week.

One thing I noticed when going back over the titles I didn’t play this year: I had a lot of RPGs in there. When I was picking these games, I also stumbled on a few two-game franchises and put the whole franchise in there to make it simple. So yeah, I had a lot of stuff to check out. Opening with…

The variety

Wait till they toss in bugs! And fire! And MORE!

Starting with a funny puzzle game (that I had almost forgotten about!), Girls Like Robots is a creation of Popcannibal. In this game from 2014, we seat girls, robots, nerds and various other characters (with the loadout changing at every chapter) to reach as much happiness as possible. Girls love to sit next to robots, but a robot cannot stand being surrounded by four girls. Nerds like edges, corners, and robots, but girls don’t like them. Girls and nerds like pie, but robots don’t! New requests, character interactions, and rules get added regularly to shake things up. It’s fun, and gets surprisingly tricky even an hour in.

Quick Review: Little Kitty, Big City

*incomprehensible man-squee, something about cats I think?*

I swear, that intro is legit terrifying.

A creation of Double Dagger Studios released on May 9th, 2024, today’s game is one I had been eagerly waiting for. I had to play it as soon as it came out and add it to this year’s Quick Reviews rotation, I just had to. You play as a kitten who was lazing just outside the window of the high apartment it lives in, who falls down from its perch and makes a (thankfully) safe landing all the way down. From here on, your goal is obvious: Get back home!

...Easier said than done. Kitties don’t fly.

I wasn't flying, I was... uh... falling with style!

And there’s also that kitties get distracted with everything, are super-curious, and don’t have a sense of direction. However, this cat makes friends: First, a crow it latched on to during its fall, which is why it didn’t hurt itself too badly. The crow offers to help, but for that kitty should collect 25 Shinies and bring them back.

Ready for a loooong jump!

...Okay, lemme get the Charm, give me a couple hundred hours, I’ll be back with a couple Shinies and- Oh, not those? Phew! I wouldn’t have the patience. No, we’re talking about junk that can be found all over the place. The crow only asks for 25, and you can gather hundreds. When you fulfill the bird’s mission, your reward is a fish, which replenishes the kitten’s stomach and its climbing ability! From here on, the quest is to find three more fish dinners around town, granting enough energy to climb our way home.

The Ascension begins... but we're not ready yet.

"Ah, so that's how they film those movies mommy loves
to watch with the big lizard!"

...Again, easier said than done, because kitties have the attention span of a goldfish with ADHD. Other animals you can meet around town include a tanuki working on a teleportation system by sewer holes and a duck dad looking for his four ducklings. Main quest? What’s that? I have to retrieve the ducklings, find a chameleon eight times, catch many birds, rest in six perfect spots, rescue the neighbor dog’s three lost baseballs, pretend I’m Godzilla, recycle 100 cans, steal a phone and bring it to a flying scarab and-

What was I doing again?

Gotcha!

"Oh I just can't wait to be King!"

Oh right, I was collecting poses and hats. Side-quests lead to your kitten earning new poses. It meows when you press F, but if you hold down the key, a menu will appear with multiple poses. These are fun when you also use the camera (with C, obtainable after a quest) to take pictures of kitty! Oh, and that’s before you factor in the collectible hats to put on its adorbs noggin! There’s 42 of those, and while some can be found in hidden corners of town, others must be purchased from the crow, at vending machines, using Shinies.

Okay, time to go home now! ...No wait, I still have to-

Where do I store all those hats? Better not know.

You get the idea! I love this one. It’s charming and adorable and, well, everything you could expect from this idea. Kitty is energetic, characters are memorable, there’s a lot of fun details to look for. Even though the open world isn’t huge, there are many areas to check out and, as I pointed out, loads of activities and quests to tackle (though some are repetitive, like the “100 cans” mentioned earlier). Not to mention the secrets on rooftops once the Z axis becomes available to explore by climbing.

Kitty recycles, like a good kit-izen.

It's not lacking in stuff to do if you’re won over by the cuteness (and why wouldn’t you be? *more incomprehensible squeeing*), but if your only goal is to get back home, it won’t take all that long. It can be beaten in 2-3 hours, if you’re quick. Then more if you seek to get every achievement, on top of kitty’s to-do list. There’s a bit of jank here and there, though nothing I encountered was too disruptive.

Oh, I want to show so much more... Anyway, this game felt
like it could be "baby's first Open World", it has the
hallmarks with a tone and difficulty that's great for children.

Worth it. That’s all. Get it whenever you can.

Little Kitty, Big City is available on Steam for 19.99$ USD.

Year Plans 2023: What I've Missed

I felt like closing the year with this. All the way back in my Retrospective for 2022, I set up this new concept of the Year Plans, in which I picked a number of games from my collection that I hoped to play through and review on the blog during the following 12 months. Part of the idea was that, since I have such a large backlog, I would focus on a few titles on top of the yearly Quick Reviews.

I even thought of adding a new main page to the blog to keep track of the ones I had selected for this year.

I did go through all the titles selected for the Quick Reviews, because I like the concept and it’s an easy way to knock a couple out through a few months. The longer titles, that’s a different story; I didn't get to cover as many as I would've liked. So, instead of giving them a full playthrough and article, I figured I would either discuss what my plans were/might be for each title, or give a quick “First Impressions” after playing each one for about an hour, depending on the case.

Today, it’s a relaxed article. Nothing too complex, just me chatting about games I know and trying out a few I haven’t played yet.

Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation

Yet another game that’s unavailable for purchase on the Steam Store (since May 2022), I’ve had this one sitting in my library since 2021. A purchase on Humble Bundle four years prior included four DLC packs for the game... but not the game itself. It’s been odd every time I reviewed on here a game that could no longer been purchased, but I feel it’s important and interesting to do so, like keeping track of what's been lost. This entry by BKOM studios, whose headquarters are in Quebec City, is meant to be a virtual version of an existing board game, Tomb of Annihilation. It does have that tabletop feel, and the association with Dungeons & Dragons (a license expiration may be the reason why the game got delisted) is clear as day... I say that as if I have ever played that game...

On the other hand, the codes for the DLCs still worked, so... I have that to look forward to when I'll dig deeper into this one. This was a fun hour!

DoubleMoose's "Just Die Already"

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Beyond Good and Evil (Part 2)

Resuming from Part 1, which you can read here.

Slaughterhouse

Today, 2 people protesting with signs. Tomorrow, 4.
The next day, 8? Give it two weeks, and the Alphas are toast!

Good thing we even have that hovercraft, since Hillys
is mostly water all over the place.

Jade’s photojournalism is working. People are rising up. It’s getting clearer that the Alpha Sections are in cahoots with the DomZ. But it’s not enough. The IRIS Network gives Jade her next mission: The victims taken to the Nutripils Factory get shipped into the abandoned slaughterhouse. Once more, she’ll have to sneak in there and take pictures proving the “guards” claiming to fight the aliens are actually working for them. The place is closed off, but there’s a secret hatch the hovercraft can sneak into from within the third circuit of the underground racing league.

The hovercraft will need the ability to jump in order to enter the hatch, so it’s off to Mammago’s again for a jump kit. 15 pearls, pay up. Of the 88 Pearls in the game, you spend 71 at the Garage, all mandatory upgrades for plot progression. As a result, you’re better off not leaving any Pearls behind, just in case you need them later.

Racing to save the world - why not?

Then, Jade and Double H join the race and find the secret passage. Props to this game, it tries to feature all of its major gameplay elements somewhat evenly; be it combat, the occasional puzzle or piloting the hovercraft, though stealth takes over at some point. Really, if it weren’t that the camera often goes haywire when you turn around too roughly with the hovercraft, it would be great. (The camera is a regular issue in the game, because you don't have control; it automatically positions itself where it deems necessary, and it often clashes with what you’re trying to do. Not a great system, but it was a frequent issue in games at the time.)

Beyond Good and Evil (Part 1)

I’m reaching a point in the year where I realize that many games in my to-do list for 2023 are well-regarded, with some of those having reached some degree of fame from both how long they’ve been around and long-lasting positive opinion of them. I’m kind of scared of hype aversion. Today’s game is one of the most beloved from Ubisoft; not one from their infancy, but assuredly one that helped make them into the big studio they are. (Or were? Between controversies, layoffs and mass cancellations, it’s become hard to tell.) It’s also considered by quite a few publications as one of the best games ever made, so… yeah. The hype is real.

Directed by Michel Ancel of Rayman fame, the game we have today was first released for the PlayStation 2 in North America on November 11th, 2003. It was further ported for Microsoft Windows on the 19th, for the original Xbox on December 2nd, for GameCube on December 11th, and had extra HD rereleases for Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2011. Blending genres, this science-fiction tale is an adventure, but several other gaming genres tack themselves onto it: Dungeon exploration, stealth, puzzle, a fair bit of freedom (the game’s progression is linear but some elements can be discovered by just driving around), and… photography? Oh yeah! There’s not enough photography games out there! Alright, I think we can jump in.

The scoop

She'll even rescue kids if she has to. She's already heroic!

Meet Jade, a young woman living in a lighthouse on mining planet Hillys, circa 25th century. The planet, like many others, has been under attack by the DomZ, an alien species, and they’re constantly being pushed away, but barely, by a special task team called the Alpha Section. The planets under attack have adapted in a variety of ways, notably by creating anti-DomZ force fields; however, the repeated attacks always result in casualties. Jade lives with her adoptive uncle Pey’j, who is a literal pig man (perhaps he would prefer the scientific term “sus sapien”; he does look kinda sus sometimes) and several human children rescued and kept safe as their families were taken by the menace. She also has a helping AI buddy who goes by Secundo and whose speech is a mishmash of languages.

Speaking of the kids at the lighthouse, you better not
touch them or you're getting destroyed.

She works as a photojournalist, but doesn’t see much success and money is rare. Her funds are insufficient to maintain the force field measure around the lighthouse, which is a problem when the DomZ attack again. She barely repeals them with Pey’j’s help, even having to defeat a stronger DomZ creature. Damn, she's an expert in fighting with that laser staff. They defend the lighthouse just fine, getting a pearl by killing the large DomZ. It’s after their victory that the Alpha Section arrives, late, to help. As usual.

From this fight, I feared Pey'j (bottom left) would end up
being not too good in battle, as frequently happens of allies
in video games, but he proves his worth later on.

Quick Review: Grow Home

I want to see a view from the top of the world.

Just one crystal, and that low power issue
will have been dealt with.

A creation of Reflections, a Ubisoft Studio, published by Ubisoft (well, yeah) and released on February 4th, 2015, Grow Home is the story of BUD. The little robot has been sent downwards onto an alien planet by his home ship, named M.O.M., in the hopes that he can rescue his home planet. His mission involves growing a Star Plant on this world that will reach an altitude of two kilometers (2000m), which will also allow BUD to return “home” to the ship, and find a Star Seed on the way as his home world needs the oxygen its plant will grant.

One hand at a time... yes, that will do.
Slow and steady, the climber goes up.

BUD is fairly resistant, but not indestructible; a high enough fall or being too long in water will destroy him, but he will be revived at the last checkpoint. His movements are “procedurally animated”, a fancy way of saying that he moves with ragdoll physics, most noticeable when he takes his first steps or does sharp turns on foot. It makes him unwieldy and a bit of a klutz, to say the least. He will mainly be climbing vines and mountains, however, and for this, he uses one mouse button for each hand; Left for left, Right for right. Climbing is a mechanic that’s a bit difficult to get the hang of, but it’s the focus of the game so you better get good at it. You can also use it to grab items and drag them around. BUD also jumps with Space.

Have you ever tried controlling the
growth of a plant?

The poor little dodo-like Warble is shaking...
I think I traumatized it.

You take control of sprouts nicknamed Star Shoots, which will make them grow, and then you control the direction in which they grow. However, the trunk of the Star Plant itself won’t grow unless you offer it sustenance, and that involves crashing Star Shoots into islands floating in the sky that still have some nutrients (denoted by a green, slimy bottom) on them.

Some plants have abilities that will help BUD, like daisies that he can use to glide as long as they have petals, which they lose over time; or leaves that can turn into hang gliders. Also of note: The wildlife, with creatures resembling sheep and dodos. You can even feed them with the large, edible plants around. One sheep will follow BUD around after the robot rescues it from boulders. This sort of attention to detail, these touches give the world some color, that’s what makes a good game great.

How that daisy can keep me in the air with its
three petals, I'll never know.

Gem. Gimme.

There are two important side-quests: The first involves finding 100 power Crystals scattered around the game. After you’ve collected enough you’ll unlock new abilities for BUD, such as a drone you can deploy to get a larger view of the surroundings, a jetpack that will get more fuel and thrust power the more crystals you find, or a crystal detector. The second is to complete the data bank, which you do by grabbing plants and animals and taking them into the teleporters, which are also data scanners as well as BUD’s respawn points when he dies. I had a lot of fun dragging a sheep or a dodo behind me to get them to the nearest teleporter. Once the main game is complete, M.O.M. will give you the optional quest of finding eight more Star Seeds around this world.

I loved this one! It’s on the short side, but it’s still a pretty fun experience. Getting used to controlling BUD, and especially learning to climb efficiently, takes a moment. The game messes with your perception of gravity after you’ve spent a couple hours playing it.

Breathtaking.

Terence? Pfah! I'd call him Shaun.

All of the little details added to its otherwise-simple concept, all of the little things you can find… It’s genuinely enjoyable throughout. The low-poly style helps give the experience a ton of charm. Everything is cute here. The sights are impressive, as well. Look down from 1,800 meters down to the world below. Feels grand. The quest is engaging and interesting, and the side-quests offer enough rewards to entice players to take them. The Crystals, in particular, are items the game wants you to find, with audio clues and upgrades that focus on finding more.

If you can get your hands on this one, you’re gonna have a fun time. I recommend it, definitely. There is a sequel that I haven’t played, titled Grow Up, if you want more after playing this one. You can find this title on Steam for 7.99$ US.